Elizabeth Smart Backs New App to Fight Child Abduction - East Idaho News
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Elizabeth Smart Backs New App to Fight Child Abduction

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GETTY N 012012 ElizabethSmart?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1340730711819Charles Eshelman/FilmMagic(NEW YORK) — Children in danger will soon have a new option to get help. Good Morning America contributor Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped from her home in 2002, is backing a new app for your smart phone.

Called HERO, the mobile app is like an Amber alert for your smart phone that works as a geo-location device in emergency situations.

When you press the “Help Me” button, it begins streaming audio and video and your exact location to anyone in the area who also has the app.

“[W]hen you push a button it sends instant video, sound and location to all your friends, family and even the crowd around you within a 5-mile radius,” said the HERO developer George Metuse.

Whether a situation where a child is abducted or you lose your child in the grocery store, you can send out a notification to all the people within a 5-mile radius with a photograph of your child.

Smart, who is being compensated by the company, demonstrated it for GMA.

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“I can’t say for sure it would have prevented me from being kidnapped, but if I did have the Hero app with me, it has a location device that drops a pin exactly where you were at,” Smart said.  “Every single person can be a hero. Every person can make a difference.”

To download HERO for free, visit www.apptooth.com/Hero and click on the Apple App Store icon for iOS (iPhone, iPad or iPod) or the Google Play icon for Android.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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